Esha Deol and Bharat Takhtani at their wedding June 29 at the ISKCON temple in Mumbai

Esha Marries Bharat in Lavish, Star-Studded Ceremony

In typical “band baaja baraat” style, veteran Indian actors Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s daughter Esha tied the knot June 29 with businessman Bharat Takhtani in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.

The Bandra-based groom came to the venue on a white horse before the couple took the marriage vows around a sacred fire.

Wearing a Kanjeevaram saree, Hema and her husband Dharmendra, looking dapper in a suit, welcomed the groom at the temple.
Esha and Bharat got married in South Indian style at the ISKCON temple in Juhu here.

Esha, too, was clad in a red and gold Kanjeevaram saree, sourced from Chennai for the wedding day by her mother, to which designer Neeta Lulla had made some changes.


The couple had been dating for quite some time and had exchanged rings Feb. 12 this year.

The wedding was the climax of three days of festivities that included a sangeet, haldi and mehndi ceremony.

Besides family members like sister Ahana and Abhay Deol, several B-town celebrities were present at the occasion including Amitabh Bachchan with son Abhishek, Manoj Kumar, Vinod Khanna, Vyjayanthimala, Ramesh Sippy, Fardeen Khan, Poonam Sinha, Madhoo, Anu Malik, and designer Neeta Lulla and her daughter Nishka.
Their reception took place June 30 at the five-star Hotel Lalit drew still more personalities from the film and political worlds.


Deol siblings Sunny and Bobby were  conspicuous by their absence at the grand wedding reception  hosted by their half-sister Esha and her husband Bharat Takhtani at a five-star hotel here June 30. When asked about the absence of Sunny and Bobby, Esha’s father, Dharmendra, said, “It is our personal matter.”

 Dharmendra married Esha’s mother, Hema Malini, in 1980 without divorcing his first wife Prakash Kaur, the mother of Sunny and Bobby Deol.

Among the glitterati who attended the reception were  veteran actors Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu, Jeetendra,  Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Salman Khan, besides Tusshar Kapoor,
Sanjay Khan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit and her husband Dr. Sriram Nene, Sushmita Sen, Tabu, Kajol, Sridevi and her  producer husband Boney Kapoor.
Actors Fardeen Khan, Anupam Kher with wife Kirron,  Shamita Shetty, Mandira Bedi and business tycoon Subrata Roy  also graced the occasion.  Politicians of all hues including L.K. Advani, Sushma  Swaraj, Chaggan Bhujbal, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Narayan Rane,  Amar Singh, Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray attended the
event.